A fuel cell has been proposed as a clean, efficient and environmentally responsible power source for electric vehicles and various other applications. Individual fuel cells can be stacked together in series to form a fuel cell stack for various applications. The fuel cell stack is capable of supplying a quantity of electricity sufficient to power a vehicle. In particular, the fuel cell stack has been identified as a potential alternative for the traditional internal-combustion engine used in modern automobiles.
One type of fuel cell is the polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell. The PEM fuel cell includes three basic components: an electrolyte membrane; and a pair of electrodes, including a cathode and an anode. The electrolyte membrane is sandwiched between the electrodes to form a membrane-electrode-assembly (MEA). The MEA is typically disposed between porous diffusion media (DM) such as carbon fiber paper, which facilitates a delivery of reactants such as hydrogen to the anode and oxygen to the cathode. In the electrochemical fuel cell reaction, the hydrogen is catalytically oxidized in the anode to generate free protons and electrons. The protons pass through the electrolyte to the cathode. The electrons from the anode cannot pass through the electrolyte membrane, and are instead directed as an electric current to the cathode through an electrical load such as an electric motor. The protons react with the oxygen and the electrons in the cathode to generate water.
It has been desirable to fabricate the fuel cell and related fuel cell components from radiation-sensitive materials. The formation of structures such as micro-truss structures from radiation-sensitive materials are described in Assignee's co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/339,308, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. The formation of radiation-cured fuel cell components is further described in Assignee's co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 12/341,062, 12/341,105, 12/603,147, 12/466,646, 12/466,405, and 12/603,120, the entire disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Known flowfield concepts have previously relied on a compressible diffusion media to provide a compliance sufficient to accommodate electrolyte membrane swell during operation of the fuel cell. However, there is a continuing need for an efficient system and method for producing a flowfield that also has compliant features. Desirably, the system and method produces both the compliant flowfield features and the support structure of the adjacent diffusion media in a same plating operation.